Necromancy
Learning There are two ways to learn Necromancy. The first way, is to learn from an Artisan+ rank Necromancer. The teacher does this by pushing his own magic into the pupil, and surrounding their soul with his magic, letting the pupil ‘feel’ their own soul. The second way often occurs after someone close to the potential Necromancer has died, and the potentiate has a strong desire to try and bring them back. Raising Necromancers are able to animate dead beings, regardless of species or type. This can be animals, plants, or sentient beings. If they are not dead, the necromancer cannot use them. They do this by pushing their own personal magical force into the dead body, preferably the center of consciousness if they have it i.e. The Brain, core, etc. Once the magic is inserted, they form an artificial sentience. This is similar to Sentia, but rather than using a memory or fracture of their own sentience, Necromancers make a lesser copy of their own. This allows them complete control over the being, but also makes the being unable to maintain any level of autonomy. When they are not controlled, they are left doing whatever it is they were previously commanded, until they are given a new command, or are no longer able to function. The necromancer can provide initial fuel to allow the reanimated being movement, assuming they have the limbs to do so. However, in order for them to continue moving, they will either need infusions of magic from their Necromancer, or they must consume a living, sentient being. This is because sentience is what creates magic, and this what will fuel them. If running dangerously low on energy, this desire to consume will override any commands and in rare cases, has led to Necromancers being consumed by their own creations. Commanding Commands can be given to any creature reanimated by the same Necromancer that created them. Proper commands must be infused with the Necromancer’s magic for the reanimated to respond to them. Anything else will achieve no results. Artificial sentient undead cannot fight Commands unless starving of magic. Soul Planted Undead, however, can resist commands. If they are planted in their original body, they can resist more effectively than if in another. The more magic a Necromancer puts into a Command, the tougher it becomes to resist. However, this can lead to depletion of their magic quickly, as it must be maintained for the entirety of the task, or the Undead will break free of the control. Soul Planting Soul Planting can only be done with freshly killed sentient beings. As they die, their spirit leaves their corpse and remains in the area only briefly. These are invisible to normal people, but Aurists, Vitalists, and Necromancers can all see them. Necromancers are able to force these spirits back into their own body, or into the body of another deceased. This is done by surrounding the spirit with the Necromancer’s magical force, then pushing it into the desired body. The necromancer then pumps more magic into the force to both bind the spirit to it, and grant it animation. Only once this is complete can the Necromancer issue Commands. The closer the body is to the spirit’s original, the higher function and movement they will have. Soul Planted Undead will have autonomy when not being given Commands. They also have the ability to resist Commands, and access to their memories from being alive. If they are in their original body, they will have incredibly control over it, and can resist Commands more often than not, and even break free of the Necromancer’s control completely. They still have the need to refuel their magical source, mostly done through the consumption of sentient beings. Transcendence Eventually a Necromancer can gain the ability consume the souls of others in order to strengthen their own soul. They do this by killing the being, and wrapping the escaped soul with their own magic. They then pull the soul into their body and begin absorbing it. The absorption of the soul strengthens the Necromancer’s own soul, and in turn, his body. This stops aging and the reliance on any other functions for staying alive. During this Soul Empowerment time, the Necromancer doesn’t age, has no need to sleep, eat, drink, breathe, etc. A single soul typically lasts a single month. However, this is a slippery slope, because once the Necromancer has begun Transcendence, it becomes quite dangerous to not keep it up. Should a Necromancer allow the Soul Empowerment fall off, they will begin aging incredibly rapidly, to an age twice as long as when they were Transcended. So if a Necromancer consumed 6 souls to be Transcended for 1 year, and let it fall off, they will instantly age 2 years. Dangers and Side Effect As with all Magicks, Necromancy has varying, negative side effects and dangers. All magic is addictive, and can often lead mages to using far too much magic. Doing so can cause anything from overexertion, to passing out, to loss of magic temporarily or permanently, to death. The biggest danger for Necromancers is their Undead running low on magic, and turning on the mage and consuming them. Soul Planting can raise dead that aren’t within their control, and Transcendence can lead to instant aging. Progression Summary Novice/Junior Necromage - Junior Necromages are able to only do the most basic of reanimations and controlling the dead. They can only control on average, two bodies at once, depending on the ‘complexity’ of the body. In essence, they can control two dogs or other ‘simple’ animals, or just one fellow human/sentient creature. As well, they can only control whole, or mostly whole creatures. E.G., they can only properly command something with all, or most limbs still attached. If the center of consciousness is destroyed, or the body loses a good amount of its’ mass, the control on the body fails soon afterward. Journeyman/Necromage - ‘Average’ Necromages are still learning, yet can easily do more than Junior Necromages. They can control six bodies (Still depending on their abilities, and the complexity of the subject), and begin to have better control and understanding of the dead in general. Commonly, here, they can begin Transcendence, at least partially. Finally, they can maintain control when a larger portion of their ‘servant’ is damaged. Artisan/Necromancer - Proper Necromancers can begin to transcend to full immortality, and can use even less of a ‘full body’ to create a servant. Here, they can actually use skeletons instead of relatively intact corpses. As well, they can fully manipulate souls and can properly do ‘Soul planting’. Before this point, Soul planting is still possible, but is more difficult, and any result is less stable. Most necromancers can control ten to fourteen bodies, with less concern on the ‘complexity’ of the body itself then Necromages. In addition, they can control the dead on an individual body-part basis, meaning cutting an undead controlled by a proper Necromancer in half might just make the fight more difficult. Here, blunt instruments and fire is a Necromages’ worst enemy. Master/Grand Necromancer - Grand Necromancers are the most powerful of the ‘normal’ types of necromages, and can control a large amount (20~) of bodies, and can raise them quickly. Soul Planting is quite easy to do, and only the strongest souls can regain their own independence. Here, Transcending is still a relatively difficult feat, but is reasonable for most Grand Necromancers. If they dabbled in extending their own mortality before, here, they’ll likely be addicted to it. However, Grand Necromancers still have to worry about each of their servants’ fragility to blunt instruments, or being cut into tinier and tinier pieces. Although, they can continue controlling a body even if its’ center of consciousness is heavily damaged. Of course, this puts a good amount of strain on a Grand Necromancer. Grand Master/Lich - Liches are the single most powerful Necromages in existence, and it is extremely difficult to get to this point. Namely, to attain this level of power, a Grand Necromancer has to kill themselves and raise their own corpse. Obviously, this is an extremely difficult task, but the strain in doing so is the only experience that can fully empower a Necromancer into the ‘final step’ of his craft. If the complex, symbolic ritual is done to the letter, when the Lich re-awakens they can control small armies of the undead, and can use Transcendence to grow their own powers, instead of their life force. Thus, an ancient Lich who’s been ‘farming’ souls for centuries could, in theory, control a thousand or more bodies at once. However.. While liches have extreme power, the ritual has drawbacks: it reduces the durability of their bodies to that not much better than ash. As well, they have to put their soul in a very special container, a Phylactery, that has to be made of a very special type of crystal only found in the deepest mining sites. In essence, they can die permanently in two strikes: one to their Phylactery, and one to their own body. Credit to LHG100